Inclusive School Design for SEND: What We Learned at the Fortis Education Conference 2026
Inclusive school design for SEND was the theme running through this year's Fortis Education Conference at Stowe School, and it's a subject that sits right at the centre of what we do. Here's what we heard, and more importantly, what it means for how we design acoustic spaces for schools.
On the road: why we go
This is the first entry in what we hope becomes a running journal, a record of the events, people and ideas shaping our work at Simple Acoustics. We design acoustic pods, calm corners and sensory-friendly spaces for schools, and the best way we know to keep that work grounded is to stay close to the people living it every day: SENDCos, headteachers, trust leaders and the specialists working alongside them.
That's what took us to Stowe School last week for the Fortis Education Conference 2026, a day built around "Change Makers" shaping education through insight, inclusion and opportunity. It was a packed agenda, and it left us with plenty to think about on the drive home.
SEND reform, inclusion funding and what's changing for schools
The conference brought together keynote speakers and panellists including Sir Anthony Seldon, Barnaby Lenon CBE, Gary Aubin, Director of SEND Programmes and Networks for Whole Education, and Katrina Cochrane, Director of Positive Dyslexia. Between them, the sessions covered the pressures schools are navigating right now: SEND reform, rising exclusions, a stretched SEND system, and the genuine opportunity presented by the £3.7 billion Inclusive Mainstream Fund and Ofsted's new inclusion strand.
It's a conversation we've written about before, see our piece on why acoustics should be the first priority for schools using the IMF, and hearing it echoed by school leaders and SEND specialists in the room only reinforced how urgent and practical this shift has become. Every panel came back to the same point: reform and funding only translate into better outcomes when the physical spaces pupils learn in are designed with their needs in mind from the start.
So what does this mean for inclusive school design?
It's easy to come back from a conference with a notebook full of ideas and nothing to show for it. So here's our "so what": every one of these conversations feeds directly back into how we design our spaces.
- Hearing SEND specialists describe today's classroom pressures keeps our acoustic pods and calm corners built for real, current need, not assumptions from a few years ago.
- Discussions on the Inclusive Mainstream Fund and BB93 sharpen how we advise schools planning inclusion hubs and resource provision, so acoustics is designed in from day one rather than retrofitted.
- Time with dyslexia, SEND and accessibility specialists keeps testing our thinking on what a genuinely inclusive, sensory-friendly space needs to do for the pupils who rely on it most.
In short: staying close to the most up-to-date voices in inclusive education isn't a nice-to-have around the edges of our work. It's how we make sure the spaces we build actually work for the schools and pupils they're designed for.
Thank you to Lisa Powell, Founder of Fortis Education, and her whole team for a warm welcome and a superbly organised day, and to every speaker and delegate who shared their experience so generously.
This won't be the last stop. We'll keep showing up, keep listening, and keep sharing what we learn here on the blog, because inclusive school design for SEND pupils only gets better when it's built on what's actually happening in schools today.
Talk to us about inclusive school design
If you're planning a SEND resource provision, inclusion hub or sensory space and want acoustics considered from the outset, get in touch or book a free acoustic survey.
